Incandescent Lightbulbs to make a comeback?

[IanC]

Traditional light bulbs, thought to be well on their way to oblivion, may receive a reprieve thanks to a technological breakthrough.

Incandescent lighting and its warm, familiar glow is well over a century old yet survives virtually unchanged in homes around the world. That is changing fast, however, as regulations aimed at improving energy efficiency are phasing out the old bulbs in favor of more efficient compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) and newer light-emitting diode bulbs (LEDs).

Incandescent bulbs, commercially developed by Thomas Edison (and still used by cartoonists as the symbol of inventive insight), work by heating a thin tungsten wire to temperatures of around 2,700 degrees Celsius. That hot wire emits what is known as black body radiation, a very broad spectrum of light that provides a warm look and a faithful rendering of all colors in a scene.

But these bulbs have always suffered from one major problem: More than 95 percent of the energy that goes into them is wasted, most of it as heat. That’s why country after country has banned or is phasing out the inefficient technology. Now, researchers at MIT and Purdue University may have found a way to change all that.

A nanophotonic comeback for incandescent bulbs?



I remember discussing this type of technology five years ago.

In a way it has comparisons to the whole backradiation issue.

 

[airplanemechanic]

You may want to edit your OP. You repeated yourself.

 

[Muhammed]

Traditional light bulbs, thought to be well on their way to oblivion, may receive a reprieve thanks to a technological breakthrough.

Incandescent lighting and its warm, familiar glow is well over a century old yet survives virtually unchanged in homes around the world. That is changing fast, however, as regulations aimed at improving energy efficiency are phasing out the old bulbs in favor of more efficient compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) and newer light-emitting diode bulbs (LEDs).

Incandescent bulbs, commercially developed by Thomas Edison (and still used by cartoonists as the symbol of inventive insight), work by heating a thin tungsten wire to temperatures of around 2,700 degrees Celsius. That hot wire emits what is known as black body radiation, a very broad spectrum of light that provides a warm look and a faithful rendering of all colors in a scene.

But these bulbs have always suffered from one major problem: More than 95 percent of the energy that goes into them is wasted, most of it as heat. That’s why country after country has banned or is phasing out the inefficient technology. Now, researchers at MIT and Purdue University may have found a way to change all that.



The new findings are reported in the journal Nature Nanotechnology by three MIT professors — Marin Soljačić, professor of physics; John Joannopoulos, the Francis Wright Davis Professor of physics; and Gang Chen, the Carl Richard Soderberg Professor in Power Engineering — as well as MIT principal research scientist Ivan Celanovic, postdoc Ognjen Ilic, and Purdue physics professor (and MIT alumnus) Peter Bermel PhD ’07.

Traditional light bulbs, thought to be well on their way to oblivion, may receive a reprieve thanks to a technological breakthrough.

Incandescent lighting and its warm, familiar glow is well over a century old yet survives virtually unchanged in homes around the world. That is changing fast, however, as regulations aimed at improving energy efficiency are phasing out the old bulbs in favor of more efficient compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) and newer light-emitting diode bulbs (LEDs).

Incandescent bulbs, commercially developed by Thomas Edison (and still used by cartoonists as the symbol of inventive insight), work by heating a thin tungsten wire to temperatures of around 2,700 degrees Celsius. That hot wire emits what is known as black body radiation, a very broad spectrum of light that provides a warm look and a faithful rendering of all colors in a scene.

But these bulbs have always suffered from one major problem: More than 95 percent of the energy that goes into them is wasted, most of it as heat. That’s why country after country has banned or is phasing out the inefficient technology. Now, researchers at MIT and Purdue University may have found a way to change all that.

A nanophotonic comeback for incandescent bulbs?



I remember discussing this type of technology five years ago.

In a way it has comparisons to the whole backradiation issue.

 

[Muhammed]

Actually we are warm-blooded mammals. So the heat isn't wasted.

 

[Wuwei]

I read about the idea decades ago. It is an obvious principle to the technically inclined, but the problem is always cost and efficient materials to reflect the IR. From the article it seems that the authors used stacks of tuned layers to cover a broad band. The stacks would have to completely surround the filament and reflect accurately back to the filament. That sounds hard to manufacture. I wonder how they did it.

 

[Crick]

I wonder how you reflect long wavelengths but transmit short ones. That would seem to violate Snell's law. The stacked layers approach would seem to be based on the same sort of resonance by which antireflective coatings work. I guess > 1/2 lambda laterally but < 1/2 lambda in thickness?

 

[IanC]

I read about the idea decades ago. It is an obvious principle to the technically inclined, but the problem is always cost and efficient materials to reflect the IR. From the article it seems that the authors used stacks of tuned layers to cover a broad band. The stacks would have to completely surround the filament and reflect accurately back to the filament. That sounds hard to manufacture. I wonder how they did it.

The method I read about in the past was simply a lattice that was too small to let the IR out. Some sort of carbon fibre I think.

 

[Indeependent]

I LOVE my inexpensive 900 Lumen LED bulbs.

 

[Wyatt earp]

I wonder if that old light bulb is still burning in that fire house 100 plus years latter?

Edit: guess it still is


Livermore's Centennial Light Facts

• Age: 114 years and 1,000,000 hours (as of June 2015)
• Installed: First installed at the fire department hose cart house on L Street in 1901. Shortly after it moved to the main firehouse on Second. In 1903 it was moved to the new Station 1 on First and McLeod, and survived the renovation of the Firehouse in 1937, when it was off for about a week. During its first 75 years it was connected directly to the 110 Volt city power, (subject to the power outages), and not to the back-up generator for fear of a power surge. In 1976 it was moved with a full police and fire truck escort, under the watch of Captain Kirby Slate, to its present site at Fire Station 6, 4550 East Ave., Livermore, California. It was then hooked to a seperate power source at 120V, and UPS according to Frank Maul, Retired City Electrician. There was one interuption in May, 2013, when the UPS failed and it was off for at least 9 1/2 hours. When it was plugged back in it shined at 60 Wattsfor a few hours. It has since dimmed to its former 4 Watts. Why is still a mystery.

 

[waltky]

Hope so...

... down to my last...

... half dozen or so.

Granny says she sees better with `em...

... Uncle Ferd don't have to wear his tin foil hat...

... so the mercury fumes the new ones give off don't poison him.

 

[Wyatt earp]

I don't really care, the local power company gives me a box of flouresnts for free every year.